Thursday, April 30, 2015

Last night our church had a fundraiser at the make your own frozen yogurt creation place. I decided to give my friend that is moving a short break and take her kids for yogurt. By borrowing her 4 kids plus my 3 Lambs, there were 7 children ages 6-13. One was old enough to sit in the front seat and we have 6 seatbelts in the back of our new minivan, so all 8 of us fit. Unfortunately Ram had to drive himself because we didn't have room for him. (When we were car shopping the salesman suggested that a minivan that seats 8 was good for carpooling for sports. I replied that we didn't need it for that, we needed it for when we get together with this other family!)

I stopped and loaded everyone up at their house and then we drove to the yogurt place. Ram drove separately and arrived first. When he told some of our church members what I was doing, they replied that it was crazy to take 7 kids to the yogurt place.

It wasn't bad at all. All 7 kids were well behaved. I told them the "rules" when we got there-only take ice cream that you will eat, please don't waste what we purchase. I allowed each of them to get two kinds of ice cream and 3 toppings. Ram had an Amazon Local Deal which brought the cost down some. Everyone ate their all their ice cream except the little girls which couldn't finish gave theirs to their big sister and she finished it. Lamb 2 was the one that got the most out of all of us and he ate all of it.

Unfortunately their boy had a headache when we picked him up. I'm not sure if ice cream was the best thing for that, but we still went. When I saw he didn't feel well we ate and left. I had brought some card games and had first planned to be at the frozen yogurt place for awhile. I wonder what the church members would have thought of me staying there for awhile with 7 kids?

I changed plans and drove everyone back to my house in order to give their mom a longer break. When we first got home it was crazy. Ram stayed to mingle with our church members. I tried to get one of my Lambs to help their boy find a place to go lay down and rest. 5 kids ran out to the back yard and were literally climbing the fence, completely crazy. Only the oldest girl acted calm. Lamb 1 was really disappointed that here was his last play date with his best friend before he moves away and his best friend wasn't able to play. My boys wanted to go play with the neighbors when they found out only girls were able to play. It took me a few minutes to calm everyone down, settle their boy down, and suggest ideas of what they could do.

It ended up that their boy rested for a little while, their oldest girl checked my store Monopoly tickets for me and confirmed that we didn't win anything, and my Lambs and their two girls played in the front yard with neighbors. After that everyone was able to find something to do to entertain themselves. Lamb 3 had used pattern blocks during math in the morning and they were still out so all the girls used pattern blocks to make designs for a little while. After a little while their boy felt better and was able to play. Ram was home by then and he played basketball with some kids. Some stayed inside and played Skipbo with me.

The one part I messed up on last night was we went for the yogurt first and after we ate yogurt they told me they had eaten supper, but not much. They were hungry for more than sugar. We had eaten most of our leftovers and I never have bread in the house to make peanut butter sandwiches or something like that. I had not planned this part well, partly because I expected to be at the yogurt place much longer than we were. We ended up raiding our snack supplies that are really supposed to be for track practice. Their boy asked nicely if he could have some fresh fruit, and I honestly didn't have any to serve him. If I were to do last night over I would have planned some real food and healthier snacks in addition to the yogurt. Today I thought of food I could have served them, but I didn't remember last night.

It did get to be a much later night than I had planned because I did want to give my Lambs a chance to play with their friend after he rested. They were right that this was their last chance to play, they will be busy with moving. On the way home their youngest completely melted down. It's not a far drive but it is when one cries all the way home and the others are trying to help, but it doesn't help. Then their boy didn't want to go home (I wouldn't either with a crying little sister!) and tried to hide in my minivan and go home with us. I finally got all 4 of their kids in their house and drove home and put my Lambs to bed.

I had such sympathy on these friends. Their life has been crazy for the past few months getting their house ready to put on the market, packing, and preparing to move. They are currently homeschooled and they will go to school when they move. Dad currently works from home but will work outside of the home. It seems as if every part of their life will be different from what it is now. It brought back memories of our life changes with moving here 3 years ago.

It's all your perspective. The church members that made the comment that it was crazy to have 7 kids- one mom has 2 kids and one mom has 3 kids. The mom that has 3 kids spent about the same amount on ice cream for her family as we did for all 9 of us. We told the kids with us the "rules", but I don't know if we would have needed to, they were polite and well behaved.

Last night didn't go completely smoothly, but it really wasn't that bad. I have several friends with 5 or more kids so it didn't seem that abnormal to me. Everyone was potty trained and pretty independent or could ask an older sibling for help if they needed it. Everyone fit in my minivan. It was only for a few hours. We would have gladly had more than 3 Lambs if God would have granted them to us.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Yesterday was the first chance after a busy Easter season that Ram had to do some necessary tasks around the house. We had piano lessons and track practice so we were gone most of the afternoon. Ram went to the office in the morning and then he came home and worked on this list. My dad always says that one project leads to another and that was definitely true yesterday. I'm probably forgetting some that he did, but this is what I noticed when I got home.

*Picked up new water filters for our system. It's not quite time to install those yet, but we have them now.
*Called the company for our yard sprinkler timer and asked some questions. After growing up in the Midwest without a sprinkler system I have no idea what to do when the sprinkler system doesn't work. At the end of last season one section ran for over a day and would not turn off until we turned off the whole system. It was doing the same thing this year.
*Made a trip to the hardware store for a different wrench to try something else for the sprinkler system. Came home and tried that, didn't think it worked, so assumed we would have to have a professional out here at $75 service call.
*While he was out for that got his free Starbucks birthday drink.
*Dropped off stuff to donate to a thrift store after my recent projects.
*Hung some pictures in our bedroom to complete my photo collage project.
*Sharpened all our kitchen knives.
*Tried to repair our outdoor lights and when that didn't work, called an electrician to get on their schedule.
*Tightened the front door knob as it was loose.
*Cleared off the table in our bedroom that is supposed to be clear so he has space to set up his laptop when he works from home or I have space to sew or scrapbook. I still have some work to do on my stuff that was on that table. That project meant a few more projects for him that were on that table.
*Did all the dishes.
*Got photo files from recent church events organized to give to our church secretary.
*Made a fast supper for us.
*Supervised the Lambs picking up all their toys and the neighbor's toys out of our front and back yards before running the sprinkler.
*Ran the sprinkler and was pleasantly surprised that the system seemed to work so we won't need a professional to fix it. He will supervise the sprinkler running for the next week to make sure it really works properly.
*I made tapioca pudding and we both had two helpings.

He's back to a regular work day today. I'm so glad all this got accomplished yesterday.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

After church on Sunday I announced that it was Ram's last day in his 30's. I told everyone to wish him "Happy Birthday" and tease him that he was an old man.

Yesterday did not go as planned, some times days turn out like that. I did make a couple of Ram's requests for meals. We had Glenda's bacon and eggs and for supper we had meatloaf, baked potatoes with toppings, and peas. Ram actually wanted mashed potatoes with gravy, but that didn't happen. We have some leftovers to eat the next couple of days and then we will have the rest of his birthday meal requests including tapioca pudding.

The day ended with a change in location of Cub Scouts but no one told us, so Ram and Lamb 1 spent about a half hour looking for them and finally gave up and came home. It was disappointing because there are only a few more den meetings before summer break. We wouldn't have had to rush supper and I could have made the pudding if I would have known they weren't going to Cub Scouts.

Ram received some nice gifts, some he received when his parents visited a few weeks ago and he had some to open yesterday. He received a clock shaped like books.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Dear Lamb 1,
I owe you an apology. We have been so busy recently that I'm sure you don't think we care about what is important to you. I really thought that when Lamb 2 graduated from all his therapy our schedule would be better. But we are still busy with church, homeschool, Papa's job, Mama's volunteering at church, piano lessons, track practice and meets, and your Cub Scouts.

Cub Scouts assigned a lot of homework the past few months. Plus you had to go help with community events such as unwrapping trees at the park in the spring time. You also had to help build the stands for the cars for the Pinewood Derby. You went to everything you were supposed to and completed all your homework too.

The one thing that got left behind during this busy season was making your Pinewood Derby car. First we missed the Pack meeting where they gave out kits when you were sick. Then your leader kept forgetting to bring it to you. When you finally got it, Papa was too busy to even look at the rules for the event.

It came down to crunch time and you and Papa were going to work on it the day before it was due. Except I was running errands when Papa figured out he needed a new saw blade so you could trim the wood. I finally got home and Papa made a fast trip to the hardware store so you could begin. You quickly painted the car so it could dry overnight. Then in the morning you had to quickly finish your car before weigh-in time.

Papa was supposed to teach confirmation class when the Pinewood Derby was supposed to begin. So the plan was I would take you boys to the Pinewood Derby and when Papa was finished with class he would come over and join us. At that point we would decide if I would take your brothers home or if we would stay for the whole event.

Then we were surprised to find out that Papa's class was canceled. He was going to be able to take you to Pinewood Derby! Then you asked if our whole family could go and cheer for your car. You didn't want only Papa to be there to cheer for you.

I'll be honest that I really wished to stay home that night since I didn't have to go. But I listened to your request. Then when I heard there were 78 heats in that hot room, I wished I had stayed at home. I'm so sorry for my bad attitude.

If I hadn't gone I wouldn't have seen how well your car raced. I wouldn't have seen you win your award for best "I made it myself" car. I wouldn't have seen that all that homework paid off and you now have Scholar, Craftsman, and Family Member pins. The Pinewood Derby was really cool and I was impressed with how well your Pack ran the night. If I hadn't gone, Papa wouldn't have been able to describe it to me the same as seeing it myself.

I am thrilled that you won best "I made it myself" car. I think out of all the awards that was the best one you could have won. It means more to me than if you would have won the fastest car.

Thank you for being patient with Papa and Mama through this busy spring. Thank you for taking the initiative to do a lot of your Cub Scout homework by yourself. Thank you for insisting that our whole family goes to Pinewood Derby and making it a family event. We love you and we are very proud of you.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

I took lots of pictures because I thought Grandpa would enjoy seeing them.

Lamb 1's den made the stands for the cars. Thank you to all the parents and Cub Scout leaders that worked so hard for one Cub Scout evening. Thank you to Les Schwab Tires for sponsoring the evening.

I was quite impressed with how high tech this Cub Scout event was. I'm sure they didn't do as many heats before computers to track everything. Awards were very fair with racing each car so many times and computers scoring.

It was well run and they did 78 heats for the Cub Scouts in about an hour. The dads that helped got a good workout last night! Then they had open division where parents and siblings could race cars they made. After all that it was finally award time.

After each heat placings, time, and MPH were shown for a few seconds on the screen. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of Lamb 1's best time.

They also had a camera so you could see close up with all the people there. At about heat 65 the monitors shut off and scared everyone that we possibly lost all that work. A dad that was helping told us with a loud voice that we didn't lose any data, we just lost the monitor. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at that news.

This dad works for the same company as Grandpa. He was a tremendous help for Pinewood Derby, both getting ready for it and helping the day of the derby. He had the job to transport all the cars back to the pit after they raced. He is using a camera on this race because his son's car was in this heat, he didn't sit there with a camera for each heat.

Lamb 1 watched every heat with interest. Some of the boys used phones to record their own heats.

I was so surprised that Lamb 1 won an award that I didn't even have my camera ready. This is not the best shot of him accepting his award.

A Boy Scout troop came to be the judges for design. The leaders told them how many awards they could give out and to feel free to come up with their own awards. They were so creative with their awards. They gave out awards for best game theme, is this really a car?, etc. The Cub Scouts also voted for their favorite cars too and awards were given for that. There were also lots of awards for the fastest cars and one for the safest driver award for the slowest car.

Lamb 1 won the Boy Scout design award for Best "I made it myself". Our neighbor told us that the Pinewood Derby is really the parents make the cars and the boys watch and do a little work. Ram replied that Lamb 1 was 11 and he could make his own car, Ram would watch and give advice, but Ram was not doing his project for him. We were so proud that the Boy Scouts doing the judging noticed that. His car was not fancy, but it raced just fine and even more important it followed all the strict rules such as weight.

Lamb 1 wearing his pit pass and holding his car.

We were so happy that Lamb 1 won an award with a trophy. Lamb 1 is part of a large Pack. This was his first Pinewood Derby and he lacked the experience of the other boys in his den. This will also be has last Pinewood Derby because his den will go on to Boy Scouts next year. Ram and I noticed that they gave out lots of awards- some medals, and some trophies, but every boy in the Troop did not get an award.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Shortly before Ram had his major surgery in 2010 I got new glasses. I was debating if I should get them as I could drive legally without them. When he had his surgery I was so glad to have them for driving in an unfamiliar city to get between the hospital and the hotel. At that time I just replaced the lenses but kept my old frames. I'm not even sure how old my frames were, probably from the late 90's. They didn't really fit any more, but I wore them so rarely that I didn't mind. Just replacing the lenses was over $100 which I couldn't figure out because I have such a mild prescription.

Ram needed new glasses shortly after we moved to MN, probably about 2004. He got new frames and lenses and everything, also replaced the lenses in his old pair so he could have a spare pair. He has a strong prescription and it cost about $500 for all that.

Here we are in our old glasses. We put them on just for a photo comparison.

Last summer Ram suggested that I replace my glasses that didn't really fit and he could also use a new pair as his were getting scratched up and wearing out. Neither of us had much of a change in our prescription. I was dreading the cost, but knew it was time.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that our vision insurance covered a lot of the cost of new glasses. My complete glasses (frames and lenses) for my mild prescription cost $25. Ram's complete glasses (frames, lenses, anti-glare, anti-scratch, lighter weight) for his strong prescription cost a little less than $150.

We were so glad that we got them replaced last October and it didn't really cost that much. This summer we are considering getting Ram prescription sunglasses since we spent so much less than we expected to spend on our glasses.

Here we are in our new glasses. I think Ram's look like they are from the 70's but the employee at the eye doctor insisted they are very popular now. I do like them more now than I did when he was trying them on in the eye doctor's office.

(We got our new glasses in October, but I finally had our picture taken in March and I'm finally posting this in April!)

Monday, April 20, 2015

The local pizza place has a name of the day where people with that name can make their own small pizza for free. They have chosen Ewe, Lamb 2, and Lamb 3 names and we participated. As far as we know, they have not chosen Lamb 1's name in the past few years. They do not have gluten free pizza so Ram does not want to participate even if they have his name day.

When they had Lamb 3's name day I told them that Lamb 1 was disappointed they have never chosen his name. The employee said they do have birthday of the month days and we could let Lamb 1 participate in that. The March birthday day was on March 4, one day before Lamb 1's birthday. Here are a few pictures of his fun day. It was busy, but not as busy as I expected since all March birthdays were allowed to participate.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

1. I did make it through all the tubs of outgrown clothes, toys, and books. Ram commented on how much better that area of our garage looks. I also made it through the books in the playroom. (Most of those books are about Star Wars or Legos.) We discovered several duplicates there once it was organized! We have a huge give away pile. I hope to sort that all out and either deliver it this week or organize it to deliver for our vacation.
2. I am just at the beginning of planning our summer vacation. Since I don't do Facebook it is a little more involved to e-mail or (gasp!) even make phone calls to make sure we get together with everyone we want to. I am excited, but poor Ram will have to work and not get much of a vacation. My parents are downsizing so helping them I may not get much of a vacation either. But it will be more fun to declutter at their house than it is to declutter at my house.
3. I am also planning for the Lambs summer. With all Lamb 2's therapy last year we did not do much. This year it looks like Lamb 1 will do basketball camp, Lamb 2 will do tennis camp and a science camp, and all 3 Lambs will do VBS and swim lessons. Add in our vacation and the summer is going to fly by.
4. I finished the church library project and boxed up all the give away stuff today. Another lady from church volunteered to deliver it to a local mission. They are excited to not only get Bibles, but also our old hymnals and several various other Christian books. I am excited that they want our books that we no longer use.
5. In January I attended a planning meeting for an event our church is hosting this week. It's hard to believe the date is already here. This week will be a busy week ironing tablecloths, baking, preparing to speak to the ladies for a few minutes, and finishing up other last minute details. Thankfully we only have to host this every 6 or 7 years!
6. I tried a new Paleo chocolate cake recipe before making it for this event. I liked the cake, but not the frosting. Does anyone have a good chocolate frosting recipe to share? I would love for it to be dairy free, but I'll settle for gluten free that tastes good.
7. Lamb 1 has had a lot of homework for Cub Scouts recently. He can barely keep up with practicing piano and Cub Scout homework even though he is homeschooled. Last weekend he was doing other Cub Scout homework so he didn't even begin his pinewood derby car until Friday night. Weigh-in was Saturday so he quickly painted it before he went to bed. He finished it in the morning before he turned it in. That was cutting it too close for me. We look forward to the Pinewood Derby this week.
8. Lamb 1 has another orthodontist appointment this week. His front teeth are finally coming in so I'm hoping this is the end of his orthodontist appointments. It might not be, this might be just the beginning of orthodontist treatments!
9. Last night we went to an informal get together with a few of our neighbors. It was so strange to be making s'mores and kids running wild outside in April. We did need sweatshirts because it was evening.
10. The last library book club book was Little Town on the Prairie. The librarian invited some fiddle players and a fiddle maker to book club. It was interesting. I took some Shutterfly books I made of our trips to DeSmet, SD and Walnut Grove, MN. It was fun to share that with others.
11. Ram mowed the lawn on Friday for the first time. It wasn't in desperate need of mowing yet, but he wanted to try out his new lawnmower. The lawn looks a lot better after he mowed so perhaps it needed to be mowed more than I realized. I owned a house before I met Ram and this is my/our second lawnmower so I guess it was time to get a new one.

Monday, April 13, 2015

1. Our home library is organized in Dewey Decimal system. I organized/weeded through/typed up a list of what we have in the 300s. This includes education books (which I have a lot of from teaching in the classroom and homeschooling), nursery rhymes, and fairy tales. It also includes political science and economics which Ram has a lot. The section was a mess. This was a huge project to haul the books downstairs from one end of the house to the other, decide what to keep and type it up, and then haul it back upstairs to reshelve what we were keeping. (I couldn't use our laptop because Ram uses it during the day so I had to use the computer in our schoolroom.) The give away pile has a lot of education books that we didn't need any more. I would love to go through our whole library this way, but that will have to wait until next fall as other projects are now more important. I also worked on our fiction section-not the picture books, just the chapter books and the adult fiction. There were lots of books that Ram purchased at library book sales that were not on my list. It is good to have that updated so we know what we have for future book store shopping. I did complete the fiction and 300 sections.
2. I just began going through the tubs of baby stuff. We still don't know what the future holds for our family, but I hung on to too much. When we moved we got rid of the crib and other baby "furniture" but a lot of other stuff went in plastic tubs and has sat in my garage since then. There were a few years with miscarriages that I couldn't handle even looking at baby clothes, toys, books, and other supplies. Add in that Ram's mom also had 3 boys and gave us a lot of that when Lamb 1 was born, and we have a ton. The most difficult for me to go through is the baby books. Many of the books have specific memories for each Lamb. Lamb 3 loved the Gingerbread Man. Lamb 1 loved this book about lions. One of the first words he said was "mane" from that book. I have so many memories of reading classics like Goodnight Moon. I have a feeling this is going to be like a few years ago-go through and get rid of some stuff this time, pack up the rest to go through again another time. You would think with my youngest being 7 now it would be easier, but it's not. Sigh. I give myself some forgiveness on this since it is difficult to do emotionally. I also try to remind myself that it would be better to give it to people that could use it instead of just sitting in a tub in my garage.
3. Ram and I weeded through the church library and decided to get rid of a lot. A church member volunteered to take a bunch of Bibles to a local mission. We separated old Bibles and hymnals that were worn out to burn so they are taken care of respectfully. I boxed up our old hymnals and not sure what to do with those. We have a whole table of books to give away. We are allowing our members to see if they want any of these books and then I will box up the rest to either donate to the thrift shop or if they are good Lutheran books we'll take them to the Seminary when we go to Fort Wayne for our summer vacation. We reduced about 8 bookshelves to just 1 bookshelf of books we really want in our library.
4. The next project will be to organize all this give away stuff from church and the books from our library and baby items. Pack up what we are taking to deliver on our vacation, make trips to the local thrift store, try to resale some stuff at the local used kids store, etc. I keep thinking about how nice it will be when these projects are completed instead of getting overwhelmed with what I want to accomplish in the next few weeks!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

We've been reading Little Town on the Prairie. One chapter talks about what Laura saw while she worked in town. Last week before track practice, Lamb 2 was repeating what he heard in the book. I was horrified to hear him saying over and over again:

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

I desperately wanted to take piano lessons as a child, but my parents could not afford it. Finally when I was in 7th grade my sister and I got to take lessons. I only lasted a few months because I had other interests by middle school. I do know how to read music because I did keep up playing my flute all the way through college.

Lamb 1 was a natural at playing the piano. He started lessons a little later than I would have liked due to our move. It is just recently that he has really been challenged in his playing the piano-the teacher did a great job keeping him challenged with piano theory work. It was just so natural that he didn't need to practice much before now.

Lamb 2 is much more motivated to play piano, but he really has to work at it. Around the time he started Vision Therapy, I really worked with him during his piano practice time. We did flash cards, I counted as he played, etc. After he graduated from VT I started letting him be more independent about piano practice. But I still work with him more than I ever worked with Lamb 1-I just told Lamb 1 to practice. Last week at piano lessons the teacher thanked me for all my work with my boys as it is really paying off for Lamb 2.

I consider piano lessons part of homeschooling since they aren't in music classes with a school class. I expect them to practice often because we have paid all this money for lessons. Because they are homeschooled they can easily practice during the school day while I am working with their brothers on school.

I recently had to buy the next level piano books for Lamb 1. Usually this is an exciting time to pick an extra book to go with his lesson book and theory book. He usually picked hymns or patriotic music. This level the hymn book was combined with an earlier level and there was no patriotic music. He doesn't want Disney songs or pop songs. He finally settled on a recital book that he could tell had some classical composers in it, but it was not what he really wanted. When I told all this to the teacher, she said we can get him extra sheet music at his level if we need to. She also said if he can make it through this level, he will basically be able to play anything (with some practice).

The thought that Lamb 1 just has one more level until he can play anything was such a new thought to me. At that point we will allow him to choose if he wants to continue lessons or go on to another instrument. Lamb 2 still has several more years of lessons until he is at that point. I hope that Lamb 3 can begin lessons next fall. It's amazing the progress that Lamb 1 made in just 2 1/2 years of lessons.

Monday, April 6, 2015

I'm attempting to get caught up on posting photos. These photos are from February. I decided to start here, but eventually I have photos from before February to post too.

This is the best photo that I have of Lamb 2's chipped front tooth. You can also see why he was more worried about his nose than his tooth.

This photo shows Lamb 3's first lost tooth and also two of his new favorite toys, Teenymates. He was thrilled that his Easter basket had one Colts Teenymates.

Sorry for the picture quality. This photo shows a craft that Lamb 2 made in Sunday School. I think the teacher wrote the last line because they ran out of time, but I was so impressed with Lamb 2's handwriting on the first two lines. It was written with a pen and without a line to guide him. No, it's not perfect, but this was huge progress compared to handwriting in Sunday School last year. Since I homeschool, I look for examples of good work when I am not his teacher. Lamb 2 is making steady progress!

Keeping Rev. Harrison, our LCMS President, in my prayers

Our Family

About Me

I have been married to my beloved for 15 years. We have 3 boys. We also have 11 miscarried children in heaven. My favorite part of the day is reading to my boys. I taught at a classical Lutheran school for 6 1/2 years and now I am a homeworker. I like aprons, books, scrapbooking, and tea.